Managing AirPrint via the JSS?

[VT-Vincent]

I noticed in the JSS that you can add AirPrint printers as a payload in configuration profiles but I can't seem to find much documentation on this. On a test profile, I configured AirPrint with the IP address of our Printopia server as well as the resource path for one of our printers. I confirmed the profile was installed under settings but the printer doesn't appear in the device's printer list.

Can anyone shed some light on this setting?

[dudavis]

We have been using this for a few months and it seems to work fairly well. The key to understanding how this works is that the configuration profile basically just replaces the discovery process that usually happens over Bonjour.

In the configuration profile you specify the ip address of a printer that supports the AirPrint protocol. Our printers (HP Pro 400) do not require a resource path, but our print server (CUPS) does.

We had issues getting it to work reliably with our print server, so AirPrint goes directly to the printer itself. Using a Bonjour browser (like this http://www.tildesoft.com) can be helpful for finding the resource path.

A side note incase you run into this like we did: the AirPlay profile does not work at all like the AirPrint profiles. Instead of replacing the bonjour discovery process, the AirPlay profile actually restricts the discovery process while still relying on it to connect to the device. Weird.

[CasperSally]

@VT-Vincent did you get this working? or anyone else?

I'm struggling with figuring out the resource path to put in the config profile for our iPads. We have it working with a demo of PrinterOn (they give you the resource path to use), but I'd prefer to get it working without them if I can. Our printers reside on a Windows server, but ezip is installed so I think that means Bonjour is running as well.

I tried downloading some Bonjour browser that @dudavis mentioned but couldn't get what I needed.

[VT-Vincent]

We had the same experience as @dudavis. Providing the IP address to an actual AirPrint-capable printer would result in the device working successfully - even over a different subnet. When attempting to use our CUPS print server with a resource path, no luck.

To bypass the AirPrint/Bonjour/CUPS issue, we ended up going with Xerox Mobile Print. On the iOS side, an app is downloaded to the client that you can share documents to. The app passes the job along to a Xerox print server on Windows that contains print queues for all of the machines you'd like your users to print to.

[CasperSally]

Thanks for responding @VT-Vincent

For anyone else looking to push printers via config profile that live on a windows server via JSS, it might be worth looking at PrinterOn. Their directions for setting up printers with configurator can easily be manipulated to add printers with JSS instead, and it's pretty seamless. They make it obvious what the resource path should be.

For edu, their express install is reasonable, my only complaint was I don't think support really understands MDM - they led with pushing printers via Bonjour gateway but pushing via JSS is so much cleaner.

Papercut may do the same thing, but I couldn't get them to return my call for a demo after several attempts.